Her abuse, more so than any other, destroyed me. It was the ultimate betrayal.’Abused from the age of eight by her older brother and then her step-father, Maureen Wood quickly became numb to the constant suffering. But Maureen’s world crumbled when her own mother started to abuse her too…A Family Secret is the harrowing true story of how one little girl survived sickening abuse by the people who should have loved her most, and how an innocent baby finally saved her.

    Her home had become a prison where over the course of 20 years she routinely abused and tortured her charges. Behind closed doors she was a sadistic tyrant who beat her children with metal bars, forced wooden sticks down their throats, and made them eat lard, bleach, vomit, and feces. In this harrowing account, one of the victims of Spry’s wrath—known during the trial as Child C—tells the full, shocking story of his enforced isolation and the psychological and physical abuse he endured. Despite years of suffering and abandonment, with his mother now behind bars, today Christopher Spry is a survivor with a zest for life.

    The memoir of a woman, tricked and trapped into sexual slavery as a young teenager.

    When her father told her she was to spend a holiday with relatives in North Yemen, she jumped at the chance. Aged 15 and 13 respectively, Zana and her sister discovered that they had been literally sold into marriage, and that on their arrival they were virtually prisoners. They had to adapt to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance. After eight years of misery and humiliation Zana succeeded in escaping, but her sister is still there, and it seems likely that she will now never leave the country where she has spent more than half her life. This is an updated edition of Zana's account of her experiences.

    At first, it was a typical whirlwind romance. But one day Bledi told her that love always comes at a price ...Bledi tricked Sophie into travelling to Italy, where he forced her to sell her body to help him pay off a debt. Terrified and ashamed, Sophie worked the dangerous Italian streets without rest, seeing as many as 30 clients in a night. She was completely at Bledi′s mercy for food, clothes and shelter. And without money, friends or family, she was trapped.But Sophie found the strength to keep going, clinging to life by a single thread of hope: that somehow she′d find a way to escape.

    From his difficulties growing up, to his drug addiction, failed relationships, and struggles with parenthood, the author takes us through the ups and downs of a life spent in the shadows, trying to make sense of the events that formed the basis of his being. Sometimes tragic, sometimes hopeful, but never sugar coated, My Father’s Prostitute – Story of a Stolen Childhood takes the reader on an emotional ride which reminds us that the human spirit is more powerful than the demons that haunt us.

    Can a young girl escape a loveless home to seize elusive peace?Portugal. As a baby, Maria Trautman was abandoned at birth by her mother and was raised by her adoring grandmother. But when her grandmother passed away, the distressed child was sent to live with her cruel and cold-hearted mother.After enduring years of physical and emotional attacks, Maria built up the courage to leave her country and emigrated to Canada to seek sanctuary with her aunt. But when her uncle continued the very abuse she was so desperate to stop, Maria feared she would be forever trapped in a never-ending cycle of violence.In a passionate true account exposing unimaginably damaging upheavals, this heartfelt narrative follows Maria’s entry to adulthood and her quest to find one thing that always evaded her: happiness. And through vivid recollection of her own daunting challenges and tragic memories, Maria creates a beautiful tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.Discover the poignant truth of a courageous woman seeking healing through tremendous faith and forgiveness.If you like moving personal accounts, testaments of perseverance and powerful journeys, then you’ll love Maria Trautman’s memoir. Follow her heart wrenching story as she goes from suffering to living in happiness in her shocking memoir, After All...After All... Winner of the Literary Titan Gold book awardBuy After All… to reach the freedom that lies ahead today!

    I knew he would never stop, so I just had to do what I could to survive." Mandy Thomas was just 18 when she met the man who would change her life forever. She was soon under his spell – and then her real nightmare began. Mandy found herself part of a cruel and violent relationship that she couldn’t escape. Until one day he went too far… You Can’t Run is Mandy’s searingly honest and moving true story.

    Push/pull, give/take, love/hate, guilt/forgiveness, monetary generosity/emotional stinginess - these kids were jerked this way and that, and none emerged unscathed. Of the nine children, 2 died of either suicide or murder and the others continue, as adults, to struggle in their own ways with their violent heritage. Etienne describes her own descent into alcoholism and promiscuity as a teenager and young adult, and she is horrified to find herself following her mother's physical abuse tactics with her own two young sons. We travel with Etienne on the path of healing as she sheds her addictions and discovers ways to forge a new future with her children, a future based on love and trust. Imminently readable and inspirational." ~ Peggy Vincent - author of Baby Catcher "A compelling memoir...Etienne's writing is fresh; her epiphany is clear, her ending powerful and satisfying." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, August 10, 2003 Storkbites is a complicated portrait of a family...The writing is vivid and honest." --Adair Lara, Hold Me Close, Let Me Go, August 15, 2003 In her memoir entitled Storkbites, Marie Etienne paints a powerful picture of her wealthy Louisiana family - a mother who bounces from sobriety to drunkenness, kindness to vicious cruelty, and an eccentric father who takes bizarre steps to protect his nine children from danger. Storkbites weaves two timelines -- one showing a childhood filled with abuse, insanity, and material excess, and the other, the adult trying to make her way in California as a new mom. Murder, suicide, promiscuity, and alcoholism overshadow Mardi Gras balls, Christmas celebrations, and a daughter's bittersweet coming-of-age. Vivid scenes depict Daddy, nightly, tucking his children into bed, and hours later, Momma waking them for a beating. After years of heavy drinking, Momma lies dying in ICU and pull-the-plug battles emerge among the seven surviving daughters. In the midst of a divorce, Marie sees her handprint on her son's back and vows stop the cycle of abuse-both as victim and perpetrator. Filled with hope, Storkbites shows the fierce love between siblings and the determination of one young mother desperate to escape her abusive past. Biography: Marie Etienne's writing has appeared in numerous publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times, and Diablo Magazine. She is a competitive springboard diver, an accountant, a high school dive coach, and an avid reader. Her second memoir, Confessions of a Bi-Polar Mardi Gras Queen, was published in February 2009. She makes jewelry and steel wire baskets adorned with beads and yarn. Born in Louisiana, Marie now lives in Northern California with her two teenage sons.

    She was four years old. Marina Chapman was stolen from her housing estate and then abandoned deep in the Colombian jungle. That she survived is a miracle. Two days later, half-drugged, terrified, and starving, she came upon a troop of capuchin monkeys. Acting entirely on instinct, she tried to do what they did: she ate what they ate and copied their actions, and little by little, learned to fend for herself.So begins the story of her five years among the monkeys, during which time she gradually became feral; she lost the ability to speak, lost all inhibition, lost any real sense of being human, replacing the structure of human society with the social mores of her new simian family. But society was eventually to reclaim her. At age ten she was discovered by a pair of hunters who took her to the lawless Colombian city of Cucuta where, in exchange for a parrot, they sold her to a brothel. When she learned that she was to be groomed for prostitution, she made her plans to escape. But her adventure wasn’t over yet...In the vein of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "City of God," this rousing story of a lost child who overcomes the dangers of the wild and the brutality of the streets to finally reclaim her life will astonish readers everywhere.

    He was a seemingly respectable businessman from Canada, so attentive and caring it was easy to ignore the warning signs - until he started, step by step, to take over her life. Six months after they first met Al Amin's web of lies started to unravel and Alison became aware that he had a sinister dark side. When she tried to end the relationship, the unthinkable happened and she found herself the victim of an escalating campaign of terror. Even when Al Amin was found with knives and guns, the police had no powers to detain him. Nobody could have imagined the events that were to follow, as Alison was left fearing for her life. It would take all her strength to survive. Brave and gripping, Stalked tells of one young woman's fight against the man who terrorized her, and her determination to defeat the fear and live a normal life.

    The author, her youngest son, Patrick, her ex-husband, Jim, and her new husband, Bill, all stepped on a five-year roller-coaster ride in which Morgan incarnated the chaos principle in torn jeans and dyed hair. Drinking, drugging, disappearing, suspicious companions, failing and cheating at school, joy riding in a stolen car–there was no variety of adolescent acting out that she didn’t indulge in. For Adair Lara it became an endless sojourn at the end of her rope, a trial immensely complicated by the reappearance in her life of her aging father, a man who had abandoned his wife and seven children decades earlier. Inevitably, Morgan’s misbehavior revives memories of her own headstrong adolescence, while her father’s presence makes agonizingly real for her the consequences of giving up. Paradoxically, he also becomes the source of her best advice.Hold Me Close, Let Me Go is an emotionally charged, often brutally honest memoir that all parents (and anyone who was ever a teenager) will experience shocks of recognition from while reading. It imparts invaluable lessons about holding loved ones close through the roughest passages and about the power of family to overcome the most grievous obstacles. Adair Lara is a clear-eyed and eloquent witness to the complex costs and rewards of motherhood, and her book will redefine for readers their idea of what being “a good enough mother” really means.

    During her teenage years and into her early twenties, she was repeatedly made pregnant by her father, primarily in an effort to secure extra state benefits. All bar one of her pregnancies failed, but her child never made it through it's first year. The death of her baby was the spur to Alice bringing her father and abuser to justice. Finally, she can tell her deeply moving story of recovery.

    Betrayed by her mother in the most horrific manner, and abused by her ‘uncle’, she had to fight to survive the demons of her past.Cassie couldn’t remember when the abuse began, but from an early age, she knew that her life was different from other children. Her mother made it clear that she wasn’t wanted, she wasn’t loved and He said that he was her friend, that this was his way of showing her that she was special.With no one else to turn to, finally, she found the courage to speak out, to tell her mother what he did to her. But her mother wouldn’t listen, and with horror, Cassie was to discover exactly who her abuser was, and why she would never be heard.I Did Tell, I Did is the incredible story of a girl who was betrayed by everyone who should have loved her, and how she overcame the pain to find happiness and love, and to learn how to live with her past.

    The thought of leaving the shopping centre without him was crushing. I knew that walking away from the place where he had gone missing, without any idea where he now was, meant that things were really bad. James had been right by my side and then he was gone forever.' On 12th February 1993, Denise Fergus' life changed forever. As she was running errands at New Strand Shopping Centre, she let go of her two-year-old son's hand for a few seconds to take out her purse. Denise never saw her son again. For the first time since that moment 25 years ago, Denise tells her extraordinary story in this heart-wrenching book, an unflinching account of that terrible day. What if she had never taken James shopping? What if she had turned right coming out of the butcher's, instead of left? Denise's initial hope after seeing her son on CCTV with other children quickly turned to devastation when, two days later, James' body was found. His death reverberated around the world and his killers became the youngest ever convicted murderers in UK legal history. Four minutes is all it took for them to lead James away from his mother to his death. Denise took up a tortuous legal battle for James, and it was her astonishing strength and love for her son that ultimately helped to change the way the law treats victims of crime. This is a mother's tale, of finding a way through the despair to remember the happiness and wonderful memories that James brought his family. Above all, Denise doesn't want her son to be remembered as a murdered child, and with this beautifully written book, she does just that.